Murray opens 2013 with 25th title

Andy Murray has retained his Brisbane International title with an adventurous 7-6(0) 6-4 defeat of a beefed up Grigor Dimitrov.

Anyone wondering who might be waiting in the wings when the current Big Four leave centre stage could do worse than look more closely at Dimitrov. The 21-year-old Bulgarian has a new coach and has added depth and scope to his groundstroke weapons in a bid to help him deliver on his long-touted Baby Federer moniker.

But, for the time being, it was business as usual for at least one member of tennis’ ruling quartet. Not that it looked that way initially, as the Scot lost 11 of the first 12 points and trailed 0-3. Murray saved a set point before running out a decisive tiebreak.

Although the top seed went a break down in the second set, it was standard fare for the defending champion, who rarely takes the motorway if a scenic route is available, usually one that involves a degree of off-roading.

Murray broke back at 3-4, with a stunning trademark backhand pass, a thunderbolt return of serve and a clean backhand winner down the line. The Scot held for 5-4 and finished off with a further break to wrap up his 25th tour title in 90 minutes.

In the post-match interview, the British number one praised his opponent, who was appearing in his first ATP final and had taken out Milos Raonic, Jürgen Melzer and Marcos Baghdatis along the way.

Somewhat enigmatically, Murray also fought back tears as he said, "I'd like to dedicate this victory to one of my best friends. He's back home watching - you're going to get through it."

The Brisbane tournament has proved a vital game-sharpener after the extended off-season for Murray, who now moves on to the Australian Open in Melbourne on 14 January.

“I got off to not the best start and he was playing very aggressive, and by the end of the first set I had turned the tables and I was the one make him do a lot of running,” he said. “It’s a change of mentality really, and that doesn’t happen in a few weeks. It’s taken time to believe that that’s the right thing to do, to be aggressive.

“That was what I worked on in December, and I worked on it for the majority of last year as well. Did it well today.”

Loved your report Andy does indeed take the "scenic rout" quite often and we should be used to that by now Well done Andy Like GD too. Hope 2013 is a good year for him.The top 15 needs a shake up Too many 30+ year olds...

I think Andy needed this win, his first tournament win after the US open to prove to himself that the new aggressive mode that he and Lendl have been working on will be succesful.

Yet again we saw early this morning the reason the top 4 are miles apart from the rest when it comes to tournament play. Players like Grigor may have the skills and the shots to trouble anybody, but when it comes to winning against the very best, their best just is not enough. Andy was not even in top gear and still beat Grigor who was playing the best he could, that says a lot about the huge gulf in tennis right now.

Andy has not played brilliant all week, but that is because he has not needed to. His level this week has been enough to win the tournament, you always expected that he would go up a level if required and he did. It pains me to say it but to Andy this was just a warm-up event.

Great match write up, and the press conference was interesting ... I liked what he was saying about how he had so much variety in his game but before Lendl maybe struggled to know how to use it. I'd never really thought about that before.

So chuffed he won. ... though I do agree with The Gnome, it was a warm-up - but nothing wrong with that, a nice gentle win to start the year the way he means to go on!

"Although the top seed went a break down in the second set, it was standard fare for the defending champion, who rarely takes the motorway if a scenic route is available, usually one that involves a degree of off-roading."

"Although the top seed went a break down in the second set, it was standard fare for the defending champion, who rarely takes the motorway if a scenic route is available, usually one that involves a degree of off-roading."